1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lignocellulosic biomass saccharification pre-treatment device.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been conventionally known that ethanol is produced first by saccharifying a substrate mixture, which is obtained by mixing lignocellulosic biomass such as rice straw serving as a substrate with a solvent, with a saccharification enzyme microbially produced to obtain a saccharified solution, and then fermenting the saccharified solution. The lignocellulosic biomass herein is constituted of cellulose or hemicellulose having lignin tightly bound thereto.
Because of such constitution, the substrate mixture of lignocellulosic biomass and ammonia water is heated to dissociate lignin contained in lignocellulosic biomass or to swell lignocellulosic biomass. In this manner, cellulose or hemicellulose is rendered susceptible to saccharification to obtain a pretreated material for saccharification.
It is known that, in order to reduce the amount of pH moderator, which controls pH of the pretreated material for saccharification (to be subjected to saccharification) to be optimum pH, a pretreatment is performed prior to saccharification to obtain a pretreated material for saccharification from which ammonia has been separated (see, for example, National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2008-535524 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-115162).
However, in the saccharification pretreatment described in National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2008-535524, ammonia water is used in a low concentration of 0.18 to 15% by mass. Therefore, when ammonia is separated from a pretreated material for saccharification by heating the pretreated material, larger heat energy is required for separating, raising manufacturing cost.
Furthermore, in the saccharification pretreatment described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-115162, an extremely large amount of ammonia water is used relative to lignocellulosic biomass. In addition, after a whole pretreated material for saccharification is heated to a predetermined temperature, ammonia is separated from the pretreated material for saccharification. Accordingly, larger heat energy is required for separating ammonia from the pretreated material for saccharification, raising manufacturing cost. This is a disadvantage.
An object of the present invention is to provide a lignocellulosic biomass saccharification pre-treatment device capable of efficiently producing a pretreated material for saccharification from which ammonia has been separated when ammonia water is used for saccharification pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass by overcoming the aforementioned disadvantage.